Disability - The Facts
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The disabled face inequality on many fronts as illustrated in this chart. Take a look at other truths below:
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The latest government statistics on the extent of disability in the UK: Almost one in four people were classified as disabled, and there has been an increase of 3.9 million over the last 10 years.
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“Hunger in the UK”, a Trussell Trust report states that 75% of people referred to food banks in their network say that they, or a member of their household, are disabled (when only 23% of working-age adults are registered as disabled in the government’s Family Resources Survey - see point 1 above).
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EHRC update report to UN says 7 years later the government still failing the disabled: The latest commentary from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, reported by the BBC here in August 2023, assessed the extent to which UN recommendations made in 2016 (entitled “Being disabled in Britain – A journey less equal”) have been implemented.
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It said, despite limited progress in certain areas, “we are disappointed to see no progress against some other recommendations”.
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They found there had been no progress in monitoring the impact of welfare reforms or access to justice for disabled people.
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It said there continued to be a disproportionate number of disabled people living on low incomes or in poverty with some facing long waits for decisions on eligibility for benefits. This is something badly affecting DAS clients on a daily basis and the delays have lengthened on PIP applications to over six months.
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Massive gap in income causing further deprivation for the disabled: Research from the Resolution Foundation reported by the Guardian in January 2023 highlighted “massive income gaps amid the cost of living squeeze” causing a disproportionate impact on the disabled as they struggle to heat their homes and cut back on food during the winter.
People with disabilities have an available amount to spend 44% lower than that of other working-age adults, exposing them hugely to the rising cost of essentials.
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The Disability Price Tag: Cost of living higher: disabled households with at least 1 disabled adult or child, face extra costs of £975 a month on average; and for households with 2 disabled adults and at least 2 children, these average extra costs increase to £1,248 a month.
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The disability employment gap: Only 54% of working age-disabled people in the UK are in work compared to 82% for working-age non-disabled people according to the Centre for Social Justice – meaning there is an employment gap of 28%.
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Working-age people with learning disabilities have an employment rate of just 6% despite the fact that 65% are wanting to work.
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The DWP claims that more disabled people can, and should, be in work because of the increased availability of homeworking since the pandemic. However, Mind research showed a drop in such job roles since the pandemic – with 84% of 2,000 recruiters reporting they had seen a reduction since the pandemic ended.
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Giant health assessment firms are paid £millions but are not meeting targets: Campaigning magazine Private Eye reported in January 2023 that DWP’s own audits highlight shortfalls in properly assessing disabled people’s applications for ESA, PIP and UC. Read more
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Damaging effect of the 2022 rise in the cost of living: In March 2022 ITV News reported that families looking after those who are disabled were increasingly worried about being able to pay their bills as the cost of living soared. As essential services and goods like heating, travel, equipment and therapies became more expensive, families living with less and less were being forced to go without essential items. Read more
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Flaws in the DWP system led to almost 80,000 PIP decisions being overturned at initial review: Read the Independent article from February 2022 in which the Department of Work & Pensions admitted it had wrongly refused disabled people benefits at a record rate as the cost of needless reviews to taxpayers soared. Read more
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Impact of the Pandemic: See the stark reality of how the pandemic disproportionately affected the disabled including a report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) that shows the risk of death was more than 3 times greater for the more-disabled compared with non-disabled.
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Homelessness: The number of ill and disabled people becoming homeless surged by 53% in 2019 as local councils found themslelves increasingly unable to provide them with support. Read more here.
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The New Policy Institute in its report Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2016 found, “One aspect of poverty that can be understated in the official statistics is disability. When the extra costs of disability are partially accounted for, half of all people in poverty are either disabled, or in a household with a disabled person. Disability and family type are significant in explaining the children still in workless households; 46% of children in workless households have at least one disabled adult in the household.”
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UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People – Government Civil Society Shadow Report: This report was put together by Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations led by Inclusion London and comments on how well the government is doing to implement the Convention. It references the laws and policies introduced since 2017 when the UK was last examined by the UN Disability Committee. The key findings were as follows:
• The situation for Disabled people has gotten worse.
• The government has taken some positive steps, but has not addressed key problems.
• The pandemic response discriminated against disabled people and violated their equal right to life.
• Disability, equality and human rights approaches towards disability have been further undermined.
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Suicide Prevention: Find out about the causal link between disability, financial hardship and the likelihood of attempted suicide. Shocking numbers of people have committed suicide closely related to a refusal or downgrading of their benefits following assessment by DWP contractors. Read about the impact our work has in preventing suicide and self-harm.
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Welfare Reform Injustice and Waste: ITV News reports that a freedom of information data has revealed that £440M has been substantially wasted since 2013 fighting disabled people who decided to appeal after being turned down for two key benefits. The welfare reforms were designed to reduce the cost of disability benefits and have failed. It represents such poor value for money to us the tax payer and its getting worse. On average 75% of appeals (100% throughout 2020 and 2021 for DAS) are lost by the Department of Work & Pensions but the impact on disabled people from forcing them to fight in the courts can be devastating, pushing some into poverty and increasing levels of stress and anxiety. Read more
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Disabled benefit claimants unable to afford food: Read a Daily Mirror story about the DWP’s refusal to publish a report that admits its applicants are often unable to meet essential day-to-day living needs, such as heating their house or buying food.
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Domestic Abuse: Access the Safe Lives research on Disabled People and Domestic Abuse that found the disabled are more than twice as likely to experience some form of domestic abuse than non-disabled victims and that they also suffer more severe and frequent abuse over longer periods of time.
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Rural East Suffolk is an Area of Relative Deprivation: Many disabled people and their carers living in the communities we serve start off with a disadvantage compared to other areas of Suffolk and of England as a whole according to the Indices of Deprivation 2019 Report published by Public Health Suffolk.
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Read here about the Social Model of disability and compare it with the Medical Model to get a better perspective on disability and impairment and get an understanding of the difference between the two.
The (Uncomfortable) Truth
About Disability
20 Facts about disability: